♦ Photos: From top: Maelle Ricker in red, Nelly Moenne Loccoz in white, Deborah Anthonioz in green battle in the finals; Ricker, center, atop the podium (Oliver Kraus/FIS)
STONEHAM, Quebec ― Canada’s Maelle Ricker and France’s Pierre Vaultier secured victory in the season's fifth snowboardcross race of the 2012 LG Snowboard FIS World Cup tour at Stoneham, Quebec, on Tuesday.
Vaultier, the current World Cup leader (3,632 points), crossed the finish line ahead of Nikolay Olyunin of Russia, who brought home a career-best finish, and American Jonathan Cheever in the men's final.
Canada’s Dominique Maltais, who lost all hope for a home turf win in the semifinals due to a riding mistake, won the consolidation run and placed seventh, maintaining her lead in the women's SBX World Cup rankings (3,560).
With Maltais out early, the door was opened wide for Ricker, who actually didn't expect this win.
“Dom was so much faster out of the start on video. So, I knew it would be a tough and tight race no matter what,” Ricker said.
In the end, the 33-year-old rider from Squamish, B.C., was right. Ricker finished with the small advantage of one board length ahead of France’s Nelly Moenne Loccoz.
“That was a bit hairy. I was losing it at the end. I could feel Nelly coming on me. I just managed to hang on. … I feel good. I feel relieved having won here on home turf.”
Moenne Loccoz nailed down a career-best result. “I feel super good,” she said. “It's fantastic that I came in second today after I had injured my right elbow in the last race. I feel safe on the board again.”
While the women's final was a tight one, Vaultier came out of the start first and kept his lead until the end, able to extend it over the whole length of the course (1,030 meters). The fastest qualifier, Alex Pullin, almost caught up, but bailed in the last turn.
“That's no throwaway, although second would be the same as sixth for me,” said the reigning world champion after missing out a podium for the second consecutive race. “It was super tight racing. But that's what you get when you ride on the limit. Sometimes you pull it off, sometimes not.”
“Another win. I really don't know what to say. It's my fourth time here in Stoneham and the fourth time I won. I don't know why but it seems to be the right vibes for me,” Vaultier said. “The course seems to be made for me. I celebrated my career's first-ever victory here and ever since it just works fine for me.”
The Frenchman is on pace to secure his third World Cup title, having a lead of almost 1,500 points with only two more races to come. “I don't want to think about the World Cup title. Too many things can happen in the last two races. I might be doing good here all the time but I never did well in Valmalenco before.”
The LG Snowboard FIS World Cup continues with a parallel giant slalom Wednesday.
― FIS contributed to this report
Stoneham men's World Cup snowboardcross results
Stoneham women's World Cup snowboardcross results
